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January 2016

For young social entrepreneurs, cold-calling is often a dreaded part of their venture.

"Many of us are really good students who know how to research and develop our product, but we get intimidated about calling prospects,” says Tina Chan, St. Paul’s GreenHouse Fellow alumna. “We’re students with ideas that weren’t validated yet.”

At our Social Impact Showcase, St. Paul’s GreenHouse purposefully focused on showing that GreenHouse really can be for anyone, no matter what part of your journey you’re at – from nothing but ambitions, to seeded ideas, to ventures running at full speed.

We all entered at different stages and many are now leaving (cue tears) at different stages.

As hinted, I have been asked before how I, as a student, can have so much energy to work on multiple tasks without burning out. Truth is, I do burn out. A lot. And I have experienced more stress than I should have in the past few months.

"I’ve learned, however, the importance of teamwork, and having a team working with and supporting me to achieve goals."

I describe this week as my dive into the startup world. Not only was I working on my own startup, I was also training as a social entrepreneur to work for other local enterprises through the GreenHouse co-op program.

Hunger and homelessness sucks. That message was emblazoned across the screens of the Tannery Event Centre on February 1 as a group of approximately 90 students and 30 community leaders came together for the first-ever DesignJam Waterloo Region.

Welcome to Week 2 of my GreenHouse experience! Finally settled in, Week 2 gave me the first thrills of building a startup.It also gave me the due date of our first assignment! I remember staring blankly at the instructions, contemplating whether I really understood where I was going with my social venture.

I would like to invite you to join me as I embark on a social venture to explore food security and sustainability on campus and understand where I could create the most meaningful impact at St. Paul's GreenHouse.

At the beginning of each school term, St. Paul’s GreenHouse students are put through their paces in the GreenHouse Boot Camp, where they are introduced to the program and its approach. In thinking about a quick start to this term, Brendan Wylie-Toal, Program Manager and Start-Up Coach of GreenHouse, observes,